The Militant continues to win support for its fight against bans imposed by prison officials on the paper reaching its readers behind bars. Seven issues of the paper have been barred at two Florida prisons, starting in January. Each is a serious assault on freedom of the press and the rights of prisoners, and each is being fought by the Militant.
AS WE GO TO PRESS …
On April 1 the Militant received the results of our appeals to the Florida Department of Corrections of bans in Florida prisons. With no explanation, its Literature Review Committee upheld three of the bans, all issues that reported on the importance of disciplined, union-led protests against ICE attacks on immigrants in Minneapolis. They overturned three other impoundments, two on issues that reported on our fight to overturn those bans, and one that ran a feature article, “Socialist Workers Party call to action: US hands off Cuba! End Washington’s economic blockade!” Next week’s Militant will have a full report on the next stage in this fight.
On March 26, the paper appealed the denial of issue no. 7, dated Feb. 23, to an inmate at the Lancaster Correctional Institution in Trenton, Florida.
The impoundment notice cites the front-page article “SWP call to action: US hands off Cuba! End Washington’s economic blockade!” as the cause of the ban.
The article is a statement by Jack Barnes, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, on behalf of the party’s National Committee. It calls for “action by working people to oppose the US rulers’ tightening economic squeeze of the Cuban people and escalating military threats against Cuba.”
Like all the other banned issues, prison officials claim the issue is “dangerously inflammatory,” encourages “riot, insurrection, rebellion” and “presents a threat to the security” of the prison.
Militant attorney David Goldstein appealed to the Florida Department of Corrections Literature Review Committee.
“The SWP statement is consistent with the SWP’s long-standing opposition to the U.S. embargo and other aggressive policies directed against Cuba and its people,” Goldstein writes. “Nothing in the statement advocates or encourages violence, uprisings, rioting, or illegal conduct of any kind, either in the U.S. or Cuba.”
The impoundment notice “does not identify any specific material in the Article that Lancaster found to justify” its ban on that issue, he writes.
Further, Goldstein points to widespread reporting on Cuba today, particularly in Florida, and provided links to 68 articles on Cuba and Washington’s oil blockade of the island from the Miami Herald since Feb. 1. Goldstein points to a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Turner v. Safley. It says, “Prison walls do not form a barrier separating inmates from the protections of the Constitution.”
Letters protesting the impoundment of the Militant at the Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry, Florida, continue to be sent by supporters of free speech to the Literature Review Committee.
At Taylor, prison authorities refuse to allow issues nos. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 to be given to prisoners under the same “rule violations” as the Lancaster impoundment.
They claim the basis for the rejection of issues nos. 4, 5 and 6 are front-page articles reporting on labor-backed, disciplined protests calling for the rights of immigrant workers to be protected in Minneapolis and calls for amnesty for workers without papers in the U.S. Officials say that issues nos. 8 through 10 were impounded because they had articles on the support the Militant received in its efforts to have the impoundments of issues nos. 4, 5, and 6 overturned.
To date letters have been received from Samuel Morley, general counsel of the Florida Press Association; David Lefrancois, a professor at the University of Quebec; Tim Richardson, PEN America’s program director for journalism and disinformation; Felix Vincent Ardea, president of division 89 of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference; Deputy Director Corene Kendrick and Director David Fathi of the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project; Daniel Tilley, legal director of the ACLU in Florida; Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA; and others.
To join the campaign against the banning of the Militant, help get letters from unions, churches and prominent individuals. Send them to the Literature Review Committee, Florida Department of Corrections, 501 South Calhoun St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500, or email to Melvin.Herring@fdc.myflorida.com and Saritza.Legault@fdc.myflorida.com, with a copy to themilitant@mac.com.
To view or download a copy of any or all of the support letters click on one of the buttons below.
Download Amnesty International Letter Download Florida Press Association Letter Download Lefrancois Letter Download PenAmerica Letter Download Teamsters Canada Letter